IBM Completes Tealeaf Acquisition

IBM announced the completion of its acquisition of Tealeaf Technologies, a provider of customer experience management and analytics solutions. The move marks another success for IBM in integrating new analytics expertise into the company.

Continuing along on its run of successfully integrating analytics companies, IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced the completion of its acquisition of Tealeaf Technology, a provider of digital customer experience management and customer behavior analysis solutions.
The acquisition extends IBMs Smarter Commerce initiative with qualitative analytics software that helps organizations deliver an optimal digital experience to their customers via the Web and mobile devices.

Tealeaf provides a full suite of customer experience management software, which analyzes interactions on Websites and mobile devices. Through these views, chief marketing officers (CMOs), e-commerce and customer service professionals can spot patterns and address issues in Website and mobile application design, making marketing more of a welcomed service for consumers.

For example, a retailer may identify an issue where mobile coupons are not being recognized at checkout in their online store. By quickly pinpointing the issue, the retailer can resolve the issue and proactively engage those who may have abandoned their carts in order to maintain their loyalty to the brand.
Businesses today are only as good as the online experience that they deliver to their customers, said Craig Hayman, general manager of Industry Solutions at IBM, in a statement. This includes mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. With IBM and Tealeaf, CMOs as well as e-commerce and customer service professionals will have the insights into the journey of each individual customer and the opportunity to quickly respond to their unique needs and ensure the best experience possible.
IBMs Smarter Commerce initiative delivers software and services to help companies transform their business processes to more quickly respond to shifting customer demands in today's digital marketplace. Through this acquisition, Tealeaf will be integrated into IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, specifically, the Enterprise Marketing and Management (EMM) business, which serves CMOs and marketing professionals. Tealeaf employees will join IBMs Software Group, a key driver of growth and profitability for the company.

This acquisition follows IBM's prior acquisitions in business analytics, including Algorithmics, Clarity Systems, OpenPages and Cognos, and recent investments in predictive analytics such as SPSS, will provide clients with a broad range of business analytics solutions. These acquisitions are part of IBM's larger focus on analytics, which spans hardware, software, services and research.
The news supports IBM's long-term growth strategy to expand the companys business analytics and optimization software and services capabilities, an area of IBM's business that is expected to reach $16 billion in revenue by 2015.

Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.